Emily: I have been exposed to the Grateful Dead since I was a very small child. My aunt was and is a major Deadhead. She was too young to be a fan their first time around, during their Woodstock heyday and also when this album came out, but she was a neo-hippie in college during the early '80s. She loves tie-dye and folk festivals, has posters in her house of old concerts and dancing bear bumper stickers on her car, followed the Grateful Dead around for a few summers back in the day, and will still go see the (no-longer-Grateful) Dead with her college friends when they come through the area. She even danced onstage with Jerry Garcia, and told me that she has other stories from that time that she wouldn't tell me in front of my mom and grandma - can't wait to hear those. Yep, she's definitely the cool aunt. Her kids have absolutely rejected the Grateful Dead, after having it infused throughout all of their early childhoods - framed dancing bear pictures in their bedrooms and all. However, I have never really listened to them until today. I knew Truckin, but only because that was their family's candlelighting song at my bat mitzvah (and the only Grateful Dead song my mom could think of). So, I was glad to finally be exposed to the band my aunt has absolutely loved for more than half of her life. American Beauty is hippie music incarnate. It's folky, but also a little country and definitely made for epically long, drug-induced on-stage jams. This is the kind of music that inspires summers spent following a tour bus throughout the country, and now I (kinda) get why my aunt did it.
Favorite Tracks: Friend of the Devil; Truckin; Ripple
Zack: My first Grateful Dead exposure was due to two
of my cross country teammates who were huge Dead Heads. I distinctly remember
them going to a Grateful Dead tribute band concert, if that’s any indication.
They caught my interest, so I snatched my dad’s copy of
Terrapin Station one day and gave it a listen. Unimpressed. I like jam bands
and all – HUGE Allman Brothers fan – but it just seemed to drone on and on.
Perhaps that will happen with Live/Dead, but this studio album had that
signature Dead sound while also being really tight sonically. The songs are all
about standard length, but they compressed a lot into those few short minutes.
You can see how it would work if certain sections were expanded into
freestyling solos, especially the guitar work because Jerry Garcia seems to
have kept it quite understated here. Overall, I thought this album was a great
example of a band understanding that sometimes trying to capture the live
experience in the studio isn’t the best way to go about it, and instead seeking
to record the best studio album they could. The Dead hit the nail on the head
with that goal and the product is one amazing album here. Sidenote: I’ve always
thought the Grateful Dead was the greatest band name ever. That has to count
for something.
Favorite Tracks: Candyman; Box of Rain; Truckin’
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